"A bus carrying 52 passengers...under a persistent drizzle drenching the Central Mountain Range, where it lost its brakes and failed to negotiate one of the hairpin curves of the Jarabacoa-La Vega road."

RIP

Check service record, especially when breaks were last changed or inspected.

I always tell anyone going to that area to make sure to have a mechanic check the brakes for any problems. Everytime that I have been in that area I feel like my foot is on the brake pedel the entire trip. Same goes for the road between Sanchez and Samana, it is also hard on brakes.

Check your tires and ball joints too!

There was probably nothing wrong with the brakes.

Have you seen how these drivers drive those buses especially caribe tours, the operator of Caribe tours should be charged with manslaughter for consistently allowing drivers to drive in that reckless fashion.

Since the driver is dead you will never know what really happened.

We were about 10 minutes behind that bus yesterday, driver must have been riding the breaks, real strong burning break pad smell.

Speed kills.

Another nail in the coffin of the Dominican tourism industry?

Pretend road rules, pretend driver instruction, pretend safety checks, real failing state.

Roy,

Come on........ The sky isn't falling! I agree that much more needs to be done in all those areas you mention, but DR is not at that stage yet!

According to reports from some passengers, it seems the driver switched to a higher gear before entering an extremely sharp curve. That's where the bus slid and went off the road.

Some Caribe Tours buses are often seen on the roadside with mechanical problems.

So was it the dangerous condition of the road, an unexperienced driver, mechanical failure??

The driver paid with his life.

Roy Stone why do you want to be such a pain in the neck ,,,you can read before your comment that the brakes were burning out ,,,,The road is a very dangerous road at the best of times but why dont you go to Caribe Tours and see the bus maintenance and see how the drivers test the buses ./
Regretaably bus accidents happen even in Australia which seems to be your bench mark for most things and this was a tragedy and the fact that only the driver was killed indicates to me that there was not excessive speed ..
I have found Caribe Tours very good when I have used them and there do not seem to be many accidents with them

Scarey is when a Caribee Tours bus is coming at you at a high rate of speed around a bend in the road half in your lane. I don't know what happened here but they drive like madmen from Cabrera to Santiago. Makes me wonder if they get paid by the hour or trip.

I have been over taken by a Caribe tour bus, on a blind bend doing over 120km... it didn't even slow or care to look, as I would have to be the one to get out of the way if something was to go wrong.. It would of been me going off into the trees not the bus... Again we have to talk about driving habits of Dominicans and the the safety of the equipment being used...
Sad for those hurt and the drivers family ..

Yes, Ricardolito,
bus accidents and road accidents in general do occur in Australia too. The point it, the fatality rate here is much higher than almost anywhere. In Australia people travel much greater distances, and the roads encourage much higher speeds too. Yet the death rate is still much lower than here. There are many factors, but I do not accept bad roads or conditions as a valid excuse, since one should always drive in accordance with the prevailing conditions, and everyone knows Dominican roads are bad. I would suggest that bad driving is the main culprit, and that boils down to bad attitude. Unsafe vehicles is also a consequence of bad attitude. Maybe Caribee Tours has an excellent maintenance workshop, but if Dominican "fudging-it" prevails there (as it seems to everywhere else in this county), I am not surprised if high standards are not consistently met.

Caribe Tours buses are driven more recklessly than should be allowed. They are the killers of the road. The drivers feel that because of their size they have complete impugnity. They are always willing to put you life at risk.

In spite of what Pollyanna says.

RoyStone, most of this ppl won't understand that. The fact is DR buses, cars, and bikes look like they were taken out of horror movie. They are garbage, no maintenance,no control whatsoever and worst of all they are moving along everyone else on the road. This is a disgrace to the country. How can you compete with the rest of the world like this?

The government tries to make it better, but you have ppl like Juan Hubieres putting all kinds of crappy heavy vehicles out there for his own gain and now no one can do or say anything. Otherwise, "dig a whole and go to sleep".

Stupid DR country. It won't ever be what it believes to be!!

It has been a fantasy, it is a fantasy, it will always be a fantasy!!

It all sources back from the Old Dominican to the Young one.

I feel so sorry for DR. It could have gotten a great chance, but ppl in it are so darn retarded stupid.

accident happens , that s why they are called accidents . feel sorry for the driver of that bus , but they do drive crazy over there i was there two weeks ago and i saw how they drive no respect for human life .

Update from Jarabacoa. The Caribe Tours driver was new at the wheel. CT was overloaded with people so they drought this bus up from La Vega to help with the high rate of passengers. The unexperinced driver took the the bus out of gear and was unable to get it in gear again. So he tried riding the brakes untill they burned up. These clowns (CT) are the worst i have ever seen. I would never get on a CT buss even if it was free. All I can say is that the roads are a little safer today. One less nut top worry about. RIP

escott, Yes, you better move out of the way when you see a CT bus. Some drive way too fast and they always have the right of way.

Either they get paid by the minutes or they want to hurry up and get back to the domino games

At least it did not take five days to locate the bus!

Wonder if there was a plane wiht cocaine involved?

Is there a roadworthy certification process here? I know there is none in practice, but at least is there one in theory (like road rules)?

I bought an old bomb to get around in but it cost the same price as a reasonable second-hand car in Australia. With a car like the one I bought here, I would have to pay to have it disposed of in Australia. I couldn't drive it more the 2 blocks before police would stop me, inspect it, then put it off the road. From there it would need to be towed or put on a truck, taken to be fixed, tested and certified, or disposed of.

As for the motorbikes - don't start me!

I drive like crazy in DR, but I respect that curve!!!!!!!!!!!

i ride caribe tour every time i visit. and i will ride them again. i have always felt the driver of my bus drove in a profesional manner. there are only 53 people that actualy know what the cercumstances where, and one of them is dead. i think a picture is being painted here with too braod a brush.

Written by: temetito, 31 Jan 2012 6:28 PM
From: Dominican Republic
I drive like crazy in DR, but I respect that curve!!!!!!!!!!!
WHY? FORGET THE CRUVE THIS WAY MAYBE U CAN WIPE OUT A WHOLE FAMILY GOING THE OTHER WAY.
IS U ALSO FORGET THE CURVES LIKE MOST IN THE DR THAT ARE IN A HURRY TO GET TO THE MALECON SO THEY CAN DRINK THEIR PRESIDENTE.

Written by: danny00, 1 Feb 2012 11:26 AM
From: United States, syosset, key west, santo domingo AND NOW THE GLOBE TROTTER
Written by: temetito, 31 Jan 2012 6:28 PM
From: Dominican Republic
I drive like crazy in DR, but I respect that curve!!!!!!!!!!!
WHY? FORGET THE CRUVE THIS WAY MAYBE U CAN WIPE OUT A WHOLE FAMILY GOING THE OTHER WAY.
IS U ALSO FORGET THE CURVES LIKE MOST IN THE DR THAT ARE IN A HURRY TO GET TO THE MALECON SO THEY CAN DRINK THEIR PRESIDENTE.

Atabey, as far as the sky falling in, how bad does it have to get until we reach crisis point - past the point of no return? I think we are approaching it. Another GFC, earthquake, plane-crash, hurricane, epidemic or baseball loss or beer shortage could just do it.